The proper reply to the question, " Why ebooks are so expensive" are is that, "They are not expensive at all."
Some anecdata: In the last three weeks, there have some excellent ebook sales and promotions. As a result, I have been on a downloading binge: I have downloaded some 40 ebooks from various sources( mostly Amazon and B& N). The most expensive was $3.99, but the majority were free. I spent some $20-22, which works out to around 55 cents per ebook.
Now if you can't afford less than a buck a book, it strikes me that your question should not be " Why are ebooks so expensive?" but " How can I earn enough so that I can pay a reasonable amount for my entertainment? "
More to the point, we have been over this quite a lot, and it appears that about 85 per cent of the cost of a new hardcover is the cost of writing, editing and proof-reading, or as I call it, the human element. Its hard to scrimp on the cost of the human element without it cutting into talent and quality , and I for one do not think it worth it to make that bargain.
There are a lot of complaints about agency pricing , etc, etc, etc, and many attempts to estimate the costs of printing vs uploading to a server, etc, etc, but in the end, it really comes down to whether the final price of an ebook is affordable to folks who can buy a computing device and afford Internet service.In addition, we should estimate what's the price of an ebook to say, renting a movie, going to a concert or other forms of entertainment. When you make that comparison , even a $14.99 ebook stacks up pretty well.